Sago starch

Sago is a powdery starch made from the processed pith found inside the trunks of the Sago Palm Metroxylon sagu. Sago forms a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Moluccas.

Processed starch known as sago is also made from some cycad plants, and is a less frequent food source for some peoples of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. There is a large difference both biologically and dietarily between the two types of sago. Sago as a major dietary food source comes mainly from a palm in the genus Metroxylon. Despite their common name, cycads are not palms (i.e. they are not members of the family Arecaceae but rather from Cycadaceae, a vastly different taxonomic order: cycads are gymnosperms, while palms are angiosperms).

Because sago flour made from Metroxylon is the most widely used form, this article discusses sago from Metroxylon unless otherwise specified.

The starch from the stem of the Asian sago palm is very fine and used as the basic thickener for custards, both milk and water based. Particularly popular during Ramadan.